


where all the scars of the nevers and maybes die

by helsinkibaby



Category: Fame (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Het, Romance, mention of drunk driving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 18:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6716605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A random interview on one of the morning shows brings Rhodey back into contact with an old friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	where all the scars of the nevers and maybes die

**Author's Note:**

> For the one million words weekend "Matchmaker" challenge.  
> I went for a crossover pair and only realised when I was finished that Don Cheadle actually guested on "Fame" so the timeline for ages isn't as hard to work as I thought!

When he hears her name in the gym one day, on one of those morning shows on for background noise that he tries to pretend he doesn't look at, Rhodey doesn't think much of it. A coincidence, he's sure, just some actress who happens to be the hot new thing who happens to share a name with a girl he met at a week long science fair exhibition when they were both sixteen, a girl he exchanged letters and phone calls with for almost a year before they tapered off as real life got in the way. 

Then he hears her voice and he turns so quickly that he damn near tears a rotator cuff because he'd forgotten he was still holding his weights. 

There she is, Nicole Chapman, looking not much older than the girl he remembers from a decade ago. Her mouth still curves in the same smile as it did when she explained her experiment to him, her eyes still dance with the same enthusiasm and life that they had when he returned the favour. She's on Broadway now, he gleans from the interview, having recently taken over the role of Mimi in "Rent" and, OK, he might have been caught up in defending his country and not getting killed and all but even he's heard of that particular musical juggernaut. 

He knows he must look a sight, staring up at the screen like this, but he can't help it, can't take his eyes off her and when she sings a part of one of the songs from the musical, something slow and melancholy and heartbreaking, his mind's made up. 

He's on the phone to Tony as soon as he can, asking if he can get him tickets. 

Of course, Tony being Tony not only gets him tickets but gets him backstage and, when he hears that no, Rhodey is not in fact going to the theatre so that he can impress a lady, invites himself along. Which Rhodey doesn't mind, at least not until it's Nicole's first solo number and he makes some lewd and lascivious comments that, frankly, make Rhodey want to knock his teeth down his throat. 

Even if he actually agrees with them. 

 _Especially_ when he actually agrees with them. 

When they go backstage, the cast line up to meet the billionaire playboy, but Tony only has eyes for Nicole. He takes her hand, kisses the back of it and it's when he leans over to do so - Tony does love an extravagant gesture - that Nicole catches sight of Rhodey standing behind him. For an instant, her brow furrows, her eyes narrowing, like she's trying to figure out who he is, where she knows him from and Rhodey fights the urge to turn tail and run because what if all those letters were a dim and distant memory to her? 

Then - and Rhodey knows it's ridiculous the second he thinks it, but he just can't help it - her eyes widen in what's obviously recognition and the smile that breaks across her face is as bright as sunshine. It makes Rhodey want to smile right back, so he does, and a laugh that must be what delight sounds like bubbles up from her throat. 

"Jim? Oh my god!" Tony doesn't so much drop her hand as she pulls it away and then her arms are around Rhodey's neck and his palms are on her back and he's lifting her off her feet as he hugs her. 

"Well," Rhodey hears Tony say, "this is unexpected," and he smiles into Nicole's shoulder because Tony is his best friend and he loves the man like a brother but he does like surprising him every once in a while. 

When Nicole's feet touch the ground again, her hands stay on his shoulders and she still smiling up at him. "What are you doing here?" she asks and instantly screws her eyes up, shakes her head.  "That came out wrong..."

Rhodey wants to tell her that he knows what she meant but Tony speaks first. "That's an excellent question, actually."

Rhodey shoots him a look that hopefully he'll interpret as shut the hell up; then again, Tony never was very good at reading cues. "I saw you on one of the morning shows," he tells her honestly. "I didn't know if you'd remember me..."

Nicole tilts her head, gives him a look and because he can, in fact, read cues, he knows she thinks he's being ridiculous. "Remember you from...?" Tony prompts and even though Rhodey wishes he wasn't there, he knows he owes his friend an explanation. 

"We met in high school," he tells Tony. 

"At the National Science Fair Competition," Nicole supplies. Tony's jaw drops and Rhodey doesn't know whether he's surprised or amused. 

"And you two..." He waves his finger between the two of them, waggles his eyebrows to convey his meaning and once more Rhodey resists the urge to knock his teeth down his throat. And what do you know, maybe Tony can read cues after all because he says, "Forget I asked." He turns his attention to Nicole. "Miss Chapman, my friend and I would be delighted if you could join us for a drink." 

Nicole glances at him but her smile only widens when she looks at Rhodey. "I need to shower," she says, pulling at a lock of hair and Rhodey sees Tony open his mouth and clamp it shut just as quickly. He thanks God for small mercies as Nicole continues, "I have glitter everywhere..."

"We haven't seen one another in over ten years." Rhodey reminds her. "Another hour won't kill us." 

She actually bounces on her toes as she kisses his cheek and then she's gone, heading for a dressing room with her name on it, a half dozen women trailing after her, firing questions nineteen to the dozen. Rhodey watches her until she disappears from sight and it's then that Tony puts an arm around his neck and pats his shoulder. 

"Rhodey, my friend, don't worry, I promise to make myself scarce. But first? Oh, do you have some explaining to do."

*

"Damn... You really do have glitter everywhere." 

It's much later when Rhodey makes that pronouncement and then only because he is lying in Nicole's bed, her head on his chest, long dark hair spilling in every direction. It leaves a trail of glitter in its wake, small glints of sparkle on his chest, glinting in the dim lamplight. Nicole chuckles and he can see her cheeks, already flushed, genuinely darkening. "I warned you," she said. Then she purses her lips, continues like she's admitting a secret, "Also, I may have skimped on my shower a little." 

Which is a notion that pleases him immensely, the idea that she couldn't wait to get out there and see him again. "What's a little glitter between friends?" he wonders, refraining from making the rather Tony-like suggestion that enters his mind that involves the two of them showering together. Instead he runs his hands down her back, pausing when his fingers encounter something that he had noticed in the heat of passion, something that had made him still then too, but only for a moment. 

Now though, he's able to notice the thin criss cross of scars that cut across her back and, on realising how extensive they are, he frowns. His eyes meet hers and he sees something flicker behind them, a dimming of light over the smallest of sad smiles. "Car wreck," she says, answering a question he hadn't asked, maybe never would have asked, certainly not on the first night. "When I was seventeen."

He doesn't need to hear the tone of her voice when she says her age to be reminded that that's when they fell out of contact. Feeling as if a mystery is about to be solved, he quietly asks, "What happened?" 

She lowers her head so that its resting on his chest, her cheek directly over his heart and she doesn't look up at him as she starts to speak. "A party. In New York in January, snow a foot deep on the ground, ice on the roads. We were underage but there was still alcohol... not that I was drinking much, a couple of sips and I was good..." A shudder wracks her body and she continues to tremble in the aftermath. "I should have never got into that car." 

One of Rhodey's hands continues to trace patterns on her back, the other moves up to cup the back of her head, tangling in her hair. "You don't have to-" he begins but he stops talking when there's the tiniest of shakes of her head. 

"It's ok." But he feels her swallow hard, take a deep breath before she continues. "There were three of us in the front of the car... I was in the middle. No seatbelt." Rhodey's stomach does a slow flip as he works out where this is going. "Mikey ran a stop light, there was another car and we skidded... I went through the windscreen." 

Rhodey closes his eyes but that's actually worse because it just means he can picture the scene all too vividly. It's easier when he opens his eyes, looks down at the woman lying in his arms, the woman who's staring off into the distance and still not looking at him. "I don't remember any of that... I don't even remember the party." Rhodey nods because he's heard of that happening, has had friends shot down in combat who woke up in hospital surprised they weren't in their own rack. "They thought I wouldn't make it at first, they were surprised I even made it to the hospital. I spent months in there, surgeries, recoveries, physical therapy... first they said I'd never walk again, then I'd never dance again..." 

He thought of her that night, up there on the Nederlander stage, body wrapped around the fire escape as she writhed sinfully to the strains of "Out Tonight," and a different sort of admiring grin crosses his lips. "Proved them all wrong."

Her head moves then, chin resting on his chest, eyes locking with his. "I missed almost a year of school... graduated with the next class. Never did get back to the National Science Fair." 

"But you got to Broadway," he says, moving his hand so that it can cup her cheek. "And call me crazy? But I don't think we'd have ended up like this if we met again at seventeen."

Her laugh proves that she thinks he's the furthest thing from crazy.  "I was different," she says, when she sobers up. "When I came back. I think I understood... really understood... what was important in life, what I wanted out of it. That's why I wanted this part, it's why I fought to get the part of Mimi... you know, "forget regret or life is yours to miss"... When I saw the show, it spoke to me and I knew I had to be a part of it." She stops suddenly, presses her lips together. "You must think I sound crazy." 

"No." He doesn't have to think twice about what he's saying. "I think you sound amazing." 

He kisses her then, starts with her lips before making his way down to her neck, fingers tracing and caressing every scar he can touch, learning them as if by Braille. His lips soon replace his fingers and when he returns to kiss her lips again, he can taste the salt of her tears. 

But it's ok, because at least he can kiss those away.  

*

He wakes when the morning sun begins to stream in the window and he smiles. 

Nicole Chapman, girl of his high school dreams, is curled up against him, skin to skin, their legs entwined, her head on his chest, her hand splayed over his stomach. There's a smile on her lips, even in sleep and much as he wants to lie her and stare at her for hours, there are things he wants to do even more. 

He moves his hand down her body, to the small of her back where he begins tracing circles until she moves against him, arching sinuously against him with a moan that sends shivers, as well as a jolt of desire, racing down his spine. 

"Jim..." she murmurs, voice low and rough with sleep and damn if he doesn't want to wake up to that sound every morning from now on. 

"Good morning," he whispers as he kisses her lips, before proceeding to make sure that it really is a good morning, for both of them. 

By the time they're ready to leave the bed, they have established that yes, glitter really does get everywhere and when he makes the suggestion he balked at last night, she doesn't blink before she's pulling him towards the bathroom. 

He's not entirely sure that showering together removes all the glitter, but somehow he just doesn't care that much of it didn't. 

After all, he figures that the same thing will happen later on that night, so he's just going to have to get used to the glitter. 

He thinks it's a small price to pay for having her in his arms. 


End file.
